In what has become virtually a round-the-clock operation at its national headquarters here and at its eight regional offices throughout the country, the United Jewish Appeal is conducting an intensive eleventh-hour effort to meet what UJA leadership has termed “the greatest cash collection crisis since the Yom Kippur War.”
“The Cash Count-Up program we inaugurated at the beginning of December is falling short of our minimum $90 million goal for the month,” UJA national chairman Herschel Blumberg stated. “There is a real, clear and present danger that every Jewish Agency human support program in Israel, as well as many Joint Distribution Committee relief services the world over, will be severely slashed if we default on providing the income we have pledged for this calendar year.”
A daily flow of emergency mailgrams has been alerting federations throughout the country to the dimensions of the cash needs to be met by December 31. The year-end drive is aimed at maximum collections on accounts receivable from current and past campaigns, pre-payment of 1982 pledges, and utilization of available reserve and other discretionary funds in communities.
Among those joining Blumberg and UJA national cash chairman Edgar Cadden in the mobilization messages have been Council of Jewish Federations president Martin Citrin, United Israel Appeal president Jerold Hoffberger and JDC president Henry Taub.
A continuing cash shortfall in the remaining days of the year, these leaders indicated, could result in denial of youth aliya residential training to several thousand Israeli teenagers, stoppage in construction of pioneering Jewish Agency settlements in the Galilee and the Negev, and midwinter cutbacks in JDC firewood and food supplies to aging Jewish families in Eastern Europe.
“Failure to meet our year-end cash goal could undermine the record pledge totals achieved in our immediate past campaigns, and carryover receivables could seriously hamper the effectiveness of every remaining campaign of this decade,” Blumberg declared.
“Our credibility is on the line,” said Cadden. “With barely a week left, we’re asking federations throughout the country to run hard. This is one race we have to win.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
